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I was told by the Late great Chris Farnham before I purchased my2015 Jetta SEL TDI that only 2-3% of TDI's were sold with a stick shift....

All due respect to the late, great Chris, but that's flat out wrong. 2-3% of SELs, maybe, but not TDIs as a whole. I've had several dealers tell me that TDIs were sold with the highest percentage of manuals of any VW model, except the GTI. My local dealer told me he always ordered about 20% manuals, and couldn't keep them in stock.

VW enthusiasts buy manuals for serveral reasons: they like them, as mentioned above; and VW's automatics have traditionally been inferior to their manuals. The current DSG is a much better transmission than the reviled 01M, but in the past all VW autos have had a shorter service life than manuals. And they require maintenance that manuals don't. That last item is no big deal in my opinion but then again, I don't own one.

I was driving my 335d yeseterday and couldn't help but think how much nicer that car would be with a manual, even in Boston traffic. If you like a car with three pedals, there's no substitute.

All due respect to the late, great Chris, but that's flat out wrong. 2-3% of SELs, maybe, but not TDIs as a whole. I've had several dealers tell me that TDIs were sold with the highest percentage of manuals of any VW model, except the GTI. My local dealer told me he always ordered about 20% manuals, and couldn't keep them in stock.

VW enthusiasts buy manuals for serveral reasons: they like them, as mentioned above; and VW's automatics have traditionally been inferior to their manuals. The current DSG is a much better transmission than the reviled 01M, but in the past all VW autos have had a shorter service life than manuals. And they require maintenance that manuals don't. That last item is no big deal in my opinion but then again, I don't own one.

I was driving my 335d yeseterday and couldn't help but think how much nicer that car would be with a manual, even in Boston traffic. If you like a car with three pedals, there's no substitute.

Whatever.....Chris did the requests for TDI's....and the last couple of years there was a noticeable lack of TDI sticks.....

How many miles have people been getting on DSG if they change fluids regularly?
I like the DSG, because I can shift if I want, or laze out and drive. I don't like the autoshift pattern in the lower gears

The DSG is "OK" - When we got the Golf, this was going to be the wife's car (I was going to keep driving my Beetle that has had the O1M to 5 speed manual conversion (among other things)). About a week after we got it, I had a suspected break near my left ankle and I couldn't drive the stick ( I can't drive a manual without the clutch - even if it is possible). We took the DSG because we wanted instant gratification rather than wait on a 6 speed Manual to come in.

I prefer to think of the DSG as an "Automatic shifting manual". The wife will just drive in D, but I usually put it in S ( pretty close to the way I drive my Beetle), unless I decide I want to rock the gears with the paddleshifters.

I'm not going to name the vendor (they are an authorized Malone affiliate), but they told me that a DSG tune isn't really necessary on the 2015s, even up through Stage 2 Malone tune. Has anyone else heard similar? Perhaps the clutch pack is a bit more robust or the factory TCU tune is improved?

Necessary? No. Makes the car nicer to drive? Yes. Not sure how Malone identifies what's necessary. I recently had a conversation about this with Jeff at Rocketchip as a colleague here had his DSG tuned (along with the engine) on his '15. The owner reports the car drives far better. And Jeff tells me the tune keeps the car from shifting from 1st to second at low revs, and also keeps it out of 6th below 50 MPH or so. Both annoying features of the DSG, whether the engine is tuned or not.